There was a clarity to the Nineties. It was pre-9/11, before that anxiety kicked in that exists right now about the financial crisis or terrorism. We were all just going to move forward into the millennium and everything was always going to get better. Then, whoops, that didn't happen.

She later said "he lived in the neighborhood next to mine so I would just walk my guitar over to his house. Other work
Brownstein and former Helium guitarist/singer Mary Timony recording as The Spells released The Age of Backwards E. They formed Sleater-Kinney as a side project and released the Free to Fight split single with Cypher in the Snow.

Since 2010 Brownstein has sung and played guitar for the band Wild Flag; they released their self-titled debut album in September 2011. Brownstein stars with co-developer Fred Armisen in Portlandia a sketch comedy show which began airing in January 2011 on the Independent Film Channel.